Cooler Master talks about its future

Cooler Master talks about its future

Given the recent departure of several key employees to new company BitFenix, after checking out the HAF X, we were keen to know about the state and plans of Cooler Master's future.

Despite losing several people, Cooler Master was keen to point out it employs many talented individuals and has a firm roadmap in place for the next two years at least. It was adamant that it's business as usual and nothing much has changed.

In 2011 and through 2012, Cooler Master's plan is for its main brands to diverge and become easier to identify, with CM Storm handling the gaming side of things and the core brand of 'Cooler Master' going back to its roots on the other.

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For instance, since the CM Storm series launched, there's been an overlap between its Scout and Sniper, and the HAF 932 and 922 cases. Each had their little tweaks but both were fundamentally seen as gamer orientated - despite the fact the HAF series is marketed under Cooler Master's core brand.

Brand conflicts such as this will be resolved in 2011, as CM Storm takes over the reigns of all "gaming" orientated products within Cooler Master - that includes the current range of mice (wired and wireless), mats, headsets and general peripherals, but will later be expanded to include items such as power supplies too: tweaked for multiple graphics cards, for example.

Of those CM Storm products, there will will be more product variety too - another mid-range mouse is due in the next month or so, then an entry-level later in the year, and a high-end headset will also be added to the range in September or October. Further into future there will be more keyboards and even replacement console controllers as well, and they'll tie in further with game related bundling.

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The core Cooler Master brand will then go back to its roots of smoother lines and neater design with more "whites, blacks and metallics - remember the Wave Master and Cosmos" was the message we were given.

We were told that the company was not adverse to experimenting with materials, revisiting aluminium and different types of plastic - although when we brought up niche classics such as the glass-doored ATCS 210 (for those that remember), we were given a less enthusiastic response.

For this year though, Cooler Master is sticking to its guns and launching the HAF X now and its entry-level HAF 912 in Q3 this year for just $59-69. HAF is the most popular case it sells (excluding the cheapy-cheap ones), so it's willing to see the range through.

One thing Cooler Master was keen to point out is that its roadmap doesn't see products rebranded just to fits its goals: for example it's not going to shove all the HAF range under the CM Storm banner, and all new products launched will be continue to run the existing course laid out.

More Cooler Master news is due during Computex next week, so stay tuned.